Junior School

What does a fruitful year look like to you? To us, it’s one where we water, prune, nourish and cultivate members of our community and we all grow together. It happens every year without fail. For our children, just like plants, we provide a love (of learning), warmth and attention. And academic year 2020-21 has just required a different set of tools in which to create a bumper crop!

This academic year was never going to bounce back as we had hoped. A different perspective and outlook were needed from the get-go. For staff, being fixed in one’s lesson plans and curriculum schemes was not going to bear the normal fruit and so, CCJS&N staff went all out to bend, flex, adapt and change with the demands of the learning of children during a global pandemic. The teachers and staff pushed hard at the boundaries of lockdown learning, working hard to upskill yet again and think outside the box of normal learning activities to provide the bedrock for our seedlings to thrive.

Recording assemblies, filming carol services, Nativities and productions might have enabled polished retakes and even more accomplished performances and yet we mourned the childish charm of these annual events, the forgotten lines, the tea towel that obscured infant eyes or the flurry of feathers from an angel’s wings causing distraction on stage. We made more than most of a difficult situation as we became dogged in our determination to keep children and staff in bubbles and the community out of self-isolation and in school.

Maths week, virtual Book Day... it all continued. We became staggering masters of… drop off and pick up, Sports Day, a Covid-secure everything – from Drama Festival, move up sessions to managed day trips and outings; PGL, Hayling Island, Cobnor amongst others. Father Christmas even heard about our amazing endeavours and crash-landed on our field, for goodness sake!

Sadly, the Spring Term school closure forced a rerun of lockdown learning but with benefits: the thorough reflection and review of lockdown learning #1 provided a detailed handbook and compilation tape of dos and don’ts. Do carry out a morning wake up and stretch class as well as a Thai Boxing masterclass as your games offer. Don’t underestimate anyone! Celebrate Chinese New Year with a special event. Do mirror the activities in face-toface teaching as much as possible, providing as many opportunities to stretch and give breadth through art and MFL to engage the children of all ages. Moreover, Nursery continued to operate normally as well as ensuring

we looked after many critical worker children at school during the period of lockdown.

Missed opportunities? Gaps in learning? Much has been written about this in the media and after testing and assessing our children’s experiences and progress when they returned to school on 8 March, there was never any doubt that staff, children and parents at CCJS&N threw everything into this lockdown experience to make sure that this was an opportunity not to be missed. The seedlings were flourishing!

Proud. We all feel immense pride as we look back on a very fruitful year. Fruit that will bear a strong crop for the future. Rich and juicy, with a deep flavour and colour. Not perfect fruit but fruit staggering in shape and form with a mighty resilience to withstand any weather.

Mrs F Robinson